More than $100 billion is spent each year on cancer care in the United States.

Northwestern University professor of bioengineering and biophotonics Vadim Backman is closing in on this goal. By the end of 2017 he expects that the first of a series of cancer pre-screening tests will be available for use by physicians.

Dr. Backman’s research benefitted from substantial support from the National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute in particular, as well as the National Science Foundation. He says there is no other way to do this type of work without grant support from the NIH.